CVE-2017-9251
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedandrzuk/FineCMS through 2017-05-28 is vulnerable to a reflected XSS in the sitename parameter to admin.php.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidenceFineCMS admin.php reflects the sitename parameter back to the user without proper sanitization or output encoding, allowing injection of arbitrary JavaScript through a crafted URL. This reflected XSS could allow session hijacking or credential theft if an administrator clicks a malicious link.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE dataall versionsCVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Confirm FineCMS installation existsSearch for the presence of admin.php in your webroot directories. Common paths include /admin.php or /FineCMS/admin.php. Use file system search: find /path/to/webroot -name 'admin.php' 2>/dev/nullAffected if FineCMS admin.php file is found on the server
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Identify the admin.php code handling sitenameOpen admin.php and locate the code that handles the 'sitename' parameter. Search for lines that retrieve this parameter via $_GET, $_POST, or similar request methods and render it in HTML outputAffected if The sitename parameter is retrieved from user input and output directly to HTML without sanitization
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Check for output encoding on sitename outputReview the code around where sitename is rendered. Look for htmlspecialchars, ENT_QUOTES, or other encoding functions applied to the sitename value before it is outputAffected if No output encoding function (htmlspecialchars with ENT_QUOTES) is applied to sitename before rendering
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Verify admin panel accessibilityAttempt to access the admin.php file via HTTP/HTTPS request to confirm the endpoint is reachable. Check if authentication is required or if the vulnerable parameter can be passed without authenticationAffected if The admin.php endpoint is accessible and accepts the sitename parameter via URL query string
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Test for XSS reflection with benign payloadCraft a test URL with a harmless XSS probe: admin.php?sitename=%3Cscript%3Ealert(1)%3C/script%3E or similar. Submit the URL and observe if the script tags appear unencoded in the page response sourceAffected if The payload is reflected verbatim in the HTML output without encoding
A user is affected if FineCMS is installed, admin.php contains the sitename parameter handling, and no htmlspecialchars with ENT_QUOTES encoding is applied before rendering the parameter value back to the browser.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataApply proper input validation and output encoding (htmlspecialchars with ENT_QUOTES) to the sitename parameter before rendering it in admin.php.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,744.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-9251 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2017-9251 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data